The Magic of Italy

I love Go Ahead Tours...this trip was perfect from booking until the trip ended. The next trip out of country that I book with only be with Go Ahead Tours.

Grand Tour Of Italy - 15 Days

This was a fabulous trip I enjoyed with my daughter and 39 other travelers. Our tour director Monique was great and very patient. Exceeded all my expectations. The food and wine were great. The city tours were very educational and it was nice to have a guide to show you all the areas one might miss if not being guided. Only draw back was that it would be good to have more time in each city so that you can just roam around. Usually you only get a few hours if you book any of the optional tours. But all in all a wonderful experience. If you are going in October -- take an umbrella and at least one warm sweater. We only had 2 days of rain but the day in Como was pretty heavy and the winds added the pleasure of a wind chill. Dinners are usually casual so for go the fancy clothes.

Fantastic!

This was the most fun trip, for my first goahead tour I had the best time. I would recommend this tour to anyone. There is a lot of walking with lots of hills. Trying to pack for this trip was a little hard, the weather was a lot warmer then I thought it would be special down south. One thing that I didn't care for was, if you do the Tenors dinner and the catacombs you don't get any time in Rome, so if you do decide to do those two things I would recommend to do the extended 2 days in Rome to see every thing. The portions of food that you get is very large.

Be ready for a whirlwind tour!

This tour was a whirlwind, more so because we signed up for all of the optionals. But we saw ALMOST everything you would want to see in a first trip of Italy. Soooo, if you want a tour that will really show you around Italy, this is a good deal. Weather was nice in second half of October, I wouldn't want to go earlier because not all hotels had air conditioning and if you open the window, the streets are noisy. Tour Director knew her stuff, she gave us good recommendations on what to do, see and shop for. Wear really good walking shoes. I've been to other places in Europe and have not seen cobblestones like these. Bring hand sanitizer and a wash cloth. Again, we saw just about everything you would want to see in Italy and then some.

Grand Tour of Italy 9//27-10/11-2012

I thoroughly enjoyed my tour. I wish that some of the optionals had been included in the price. We had various types of rooms in the hotels. I know at one hotel we had a beautiful suite and another couple on the tour had a room you could hardly turn around in.....said they didn't have space to open both suitcases. By the end of the tour I was assuming that all at least had one great room sometime during the tour. We had 43 on our tour and I guess that not every hotel had similar rooms for all. I knew by the end of the tour I did not want to have pasta for a while! We had a few included dinners that were quite good but not all. We did the Fiesole dinner and it was very delicious - it would have been nice if that had been an included one instead of an optional. It was described as an energetic tour and it was indeed. It had to be to see all that was on the tour but would have liked more time to shop at each place. There was so much crammed into the days in Rome that I think another day should be included in the tour.....not just an optional choice. Enrico was a very knowledgeable host. He cared about all of his guests and did his utmost to see that all went well. Luigi was our bus driver and was a very courteous and safe driver. Thanks for providing a memorable trip!

Grand Tour of Italy

First and foremost, our tour guide, Shonna, was amazing. Very knowledgable and fun. The tour itself was wonderful and exhausting (a lot of walking) . I especially enjoyed the individual tour guides in Venezia, Florence, Assi and Rome. The excursions were good especially the gondola ride in Venice. I would have liked more time in Sienna and San Gimignano. Lovely towns. I was not so impressed with the walking tour in Verona although the town itself was lovely. Bologna was also somewhat unimpressive, altough it may have been the rainy weather and all the hills that influenced our reluctance to walk around the town. I enjoyed Sorrento. Pompeii and Rome were amazing. We saw so much and yet there was so much more to see, especially in Rome. I definately need to return. I will say that except for the first evening, the meals in the hotels in general were not very good. You may want to consider skipping them and giving people a few recommendations of local restaurants they could visit. In one of the businesses I worked in, we used this process at sales meetings and called them "Dine Arounds" . Not sure if this would work on tour, but may be worth taking a look at. All in all, I would highly recommend this tour to my friends, especially if Shonna is the tour guide.

Grand Tour

Overall a great tour. There is a lot of walking and you need to be prepared. Great tour to see a lot in a few days in Italy. Jim

luisa cueto

Excellent tour director, Shona was as good as Lala (our tour director in Germany) .Both were excellent!!!!

Grand Tour of Italy

The Grand Tour of Italy was an absolutely a great trip and Stephanie our tour guide was the best. Stephanie was very informative and also took fantastic care of all 45 of us. The trip began in Lake Como with an added option to Bellagio which is a must. I would have liked another day in this area and more time spent in the day on the optional to Bellagio Another day in Venice would have been my choice rather than stopping in Verona. So much to see in Venice and not enough time to enjoy it. Onto Florence and loved the optional tour to Sienna and San Gimignano - I would have liked staying overnight in Sienna and San Gimignano such great history in these medieval towns . Also the wine tour at the end of the day is definitely a must in the Tuscan area. I could have also skipped seeing Bologna. Spending two days in Florence ( to see more of the museums ) and a 11/2 in Siena and San G would have been my choice. A few people in our tour signed up for other tours in Florence that took them to Pisa - Pisa is a definite must to see when doing the Grand Tour. (we went 4 days ahead of the tour and saw Pisa then) The optional dinner to Fiesole - the drive to Fiesole would have been great to do during the day as the view of Florence was fabulous but at night not much can be seen. As far as the dinner at the restaurant I have to say the meal was just Ok (Italy has so much great food and this meal was not one of them) Loved Assisi and Perugia and another day could have been spent in Assisi - beautiful views and lovely resort and city. A great wind down after quite a few busy days. People should take advantage of the spa but alot are not informed about it. I had a massage and it was wonderful and the prices are very reasonable - should be mentioned somewhere so people are aware of it. A lovely place to stay. Stephanie offered an optional to us (when in Assisi) and it was a dinner in a local restaurant tucked away (family owned) and it was a absolutely wonderful meal --I wouldn't have missed it. Loved Sorrento and the optional to Capri. A few more days would have been great here as well especially with optional tours to the Amalfi coast and Naples. The Tarantella dinner which was an optional was alot of fun the dinner and show is not to be missed. I know there were two more optional days in Rome but a third day added to Rome without it being optional to the tour would be a preference and then if people want to add an optional of two more days they can. Overall the Grand tour of Italy was fabulous, great tour guide (Stephanie), local tour guides were great and choices of what too see were well selected. It was a very busy tour especially when signing up for the optionals which you don't what to miss and that is why I mentioned having a few more days in certain cities. 3 days in Lake Como, 2 days in Venice, 4 days in Florence (Sienna, SanGimignano), 3 days in Assisi, 3 days in Sorrento and 3 days in Rome = 18 day Tour + 2 days travel. I must say all the hotels were well selected and overall the breakfast and dinners were as well. Thank you.

southbound Italy

The tour itself was comprehensive but some of the local tour guides were either irritating or just boring. I thought the local guides in Verona and Rome should be replaced. Our tour guide was terrific being very knowledgeable and charming. David was great! And the people on the tour made it so much fun. The main complaint I had was that there was more walking than advertised and due to the crowds, it was hard to keep up. I think GoAhead should have rescheduled the visits to Florence since there were 27,000 runners in the piazza of the Duomo the day we were there and the lines were so bad at the Ufizzi we were unable to get to see it since it was a "free day". A tour of Florence on Sunday might have been rescheduled for a weekday. The food at the hotel in Venice left a lot to be desired since 8 out of 10 at our table sent their plates back untouched. It was awful. Our driver, Lorenzo was terrific. He was careful and always on time. We probably would never go on a tour again. We would go "on our own". All in all, we had a good time but will not schedule another tour. My travel arrangements were messed up and we were not able to get boarding passes for me from Nice. We had trouble getting them the night before we left here too. Our reservations were booked under one ID code and would pull up only one boarding pass. When I called I was told to just go to the airport and let Delta work it out. Then Katie suggested that I call Delta. Since you made the reservations, I felt that she should call, which she then did. I spent some really anxious hours not knowing if I was getting back with my husband.